This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website

City of Ahrensburg (Germany)

Stadt Ahrensburg, Kreis Stormarn, Schleswig-Holstein

Last modified: 2017-11-11 by klaus-michael schneider
Keywords: ahrensburg | castle(red) | antlers | pale |
Links: FOTW homepage | search | disclaimer and copyright | write us | mirrors




[Ahrensburg flag] 3:5 image by Jörg Majewski, modified by Klaus-Michael Schneider, 16 Feb 2013
approved 1 November 1976 See also:

City of Ahrensburg

Ahrensburg City Flag

Flag: "In einem weißen, oben und unten von einem breiten roten Streifen begrenzten Tuch die rote Burg und darunter das schwarze, stilisierte Rengeweih (mit Schädel) des Stadtwappens, etwas zur Stange hin verschoben."
On a white field bounded at the top and bottom by wide red stripes, the red castle and below it the black, stylised reindeer antlers of the city arms, shifted slightly towards the hoist.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 26 Oct 2008

Ahrensburg Coat of Arms

Description of coat of arms:
"In Silber eine rote, beiderseits von niedrigen, schwarz bedachten Türmen überragte Burg mit vorspringendem, schwarz bedachtem Torturm und offenem Tor. Darunter auf einem wachsenden roten Pfahl der schwarze stilisierte Schädel und die schwarzen stilisierten Schaufeln eines Rentiers."
Argent in pale a castle with a protruding gate tower open, roofed sable, at each side a low tower roofed of the same colour,masoned gules in perspective and on a post issuant from base gules a reindeer's skull and antlers stylised sable.
The dominance or red and white express the city's dependency to Holstein.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 26 Oct 2008

Stadler describes the old arms (abolished in 1976, but plans to abolish it had obviously existed before 1970):
The shield is divided per fess into silver over red. Above a red castle with gate-lodge having a stepped gable, connected with two flanking embattled towers. Below a golden pole with silver antlers fixed at its top. (a skull is not mentioned there).
This image can be seen here: Ralf Hartemink webpage.
The old coat of arms was approved by Oberpräsident of Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein on 28 Feb 1938. Flag and new coat of arms were approved on 1 November 1976.
Meaning:
There had been fortifications from the early medieval: "Arnesvelde", later on also called "Arnsburga", a Saxonian refuge fort. Around 1595 Peter Rantzau completed a moated castle near Woldenhorn and called it "Ahrensburg". Later on the name of the castle became also the name of the nearby village. The village gained city rights in 1949. The antlers on top of a pale had been a ritual place in the Palaeolithic. Its existence gives evidence of the attendance of reindeer hunters since then in the Ahrensburg area (Ahrensburg epoch). The pale was found in the nearby Stellmoor, a swamp. Furthermore in Ahrensburg world's most famous bee Maja came to be(e)ing, invented by the poet Waldemar Bonsels (1880-1952).
Sources: Reißmann 1997, p.70 and Stadler 1970, p.95
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 16 Feb 2013


back to Stormarn cities and municipalities click here.